Bell now offers up to 48-month device financing with its priciest plans

Last year, Bell launched its ‘Flex Option’ financing program, and now the company is expanding Flex Option with some new features for customers who subscribe to its most expensive plans.

Flex Option, for those unfamiliar, is a program that ties into Bell’s device financing and device return programs. When customers finance a phone from Bell, they can choose to finance the full cost over 24 months, or take a lower monthly financing cost if they agree to return the phone at the end of the term (or pay the difference to keep it).

As an example, a $1,000 phone might cost around $41.70/mo financing, or $30/mo, and you can return the phone or pay the remaining $280 to keep it. But with Flex Option, Bell allows customers to start a second financing term for the remaining amount — in our $1,000 example, that remaining $280 would be split into 12 payments of about $23.40/mo.

Now, Bell’s Flex Option includes some new features. Customers who subscribe to one of Bell’s ‘Ultra’ wireless plans — which start at $100/mo before promotional credits — can split the second term over 24 months instead of 12. Along with that, Ultra plan subscribers can defer a larger amount of the cost of select devices (though Bell says the deferred amount is the same for most phones).

A chart from Bell’s website showing the differences between Flex Option with select plans.

In an example shared on Bell’s website, the Flex Option with Ultra plans could allow customers to defer up to $720 of a roughly $1,300 phone, compared to $480 with a cheaper ‘Select’ plan. Coupled with the 24-month second term, customers would pay about $30/mo compared to $40/mo for the $480 remainder spread over 12 months.

Worth the longer financing term?

On one hand, these additional options mean customers have a few more options when it comes to paying for a new phone. On the other hand, I worry it can further obscure the cost of phones and potentially trap customers into paying way more than they need to.

Let’s use a real-world example: the recently launched Galaxy Z Fold 8, which starts at $2,399.99 in Canada. Bell actually charges $2,905 for the same device, but offers a $649 “device saving credit” when financing, lowering the cost to $2,256 before tax. If you go with the regular financing program, it’s $94/mo for 24 months ($2,256) with a minimum $80/mo plan.

But with Flex Option, it’s $44/mo financing for the first term with a $1,200 deferral amount. At the end of your first term, you can return the phone, pay the deferral amount, or split it into 24 $50/mo payments. It still works out to the same $2,256, just spread over up to 48 months. However, the core difference is the minimum $100 plan, which costs an extra $20/mo — an extra $240 per year, or about $960 total over the course of the four years of financing.

Considering you can just finance the Fold 8 directly from Samsung for about the same monthly price, and pair it with a much cheaper plan, you can actually save money by not using Bell’s financing. And while the numbers will differ with other devices, in most cases it’s actually cheaper to buy phones directly from manufacturers instead of financing through Canadian carriers. For most people, that would be my recommendation over a multi-year financing arrangement like this.